Give your home a vintage French feel

Photo: Photos: Claire Richardson Balustrading has been converted into a pair of table lamps, positioned at either end of the salon table

Author Josephine Ryan discovers the ways in which an antiques expert homeowner has created a classic style

Franck Delmarcelle’s antiques shop, Galerie Et Caetera, which opened in 1998, is on rue de Poitou in the Marais. The shop’s opening hours are restricted, or you can visit by appointment.

This isn’t an affectation, for Franck has his fingers in many other pies, perhaps entertaining a customer at his home or doing what all dealers do best – getting out there and sourcing more pieces for his shop and home.

Franck is to antiques what Christian Lacroix is to fashion – there are no concepts, just an emotional response to the visual world; a mixing and matching of styles and objects. He is also a skilled interior decorator, always in demand and forever being asked by hip glossies to supply props for fashion shoots.

Franck’s partner in life is Laurent Dombrowicz, a well-known and well-respected figure in the world of fashion. Like many in the ...